Shinigami Bocchan to Kuro Maid (The Duke of Death and His Maid)

As the elegant, frail flower petals wither away into lifeless ashes, the young duke is tragically reminded of the despicable power forced upon him—the ability to kill anything he touches. Scorned by his family, he is sent away to live in near isolation. Fortunately, he is not entirely alone, as the manor's staff—his dutiful butler Rob and the flirtatious maid Alice—keep him company and make his life less miserable.

As the duke's romantic feelings for Alice grow, so does his continued frustration for the limits set by his unfortunate ability. Therefore, he resolves to break the curse cast upon him all those years ago, not only for his sake, but Alice's as well—for he is painfully aware of how difficult it is to avoid the touch of a loved one.

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Adaptation:	Shinigami Bocchan to Kuro Maid
Sequel:	Shinigami Bocchan to Kuro Maid 2nd Season

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Characters & Voice Actors

Lendrott, Alice

Main

Mano, Ayumi
Japanese

Bocchan

Main

Hanae, Natsuki
Japanese

Cuff

Supporting

Kuramochi, Wakana
Japanese

Zain

Supporting

Kamiya, Hiroshi
Japanese

Rob

Supporting

Ootsuka, Houchuu
Japanese

Daleth

Supporting

Hikasa, Youko
Japanese

Viola

Supporting

Minase, Inori
Japanese

Walter

Supporting

Uchida, Yuuma
Japanese

Keto

Supporting

Yamazaki, Haruka
Japanese

Lendrott, Sharon

Supporting

Inoue, Kikuko
Japanese

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Staff

Cook, Justin

Producer

Oowada, Tomoyuki

Producer

Kondou, Shuuhou

Producer

Itou, Yuukou

Producer

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Opening Theme

"Mangetsu to Silhouette no Yoru (満月とシルエットの夜)" by Bocchan (Natsuki Hanae) & Alice (Ayumi Mano)

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Ending Theme

"Nocturne (夜想曲（ノクターン）)" by Alice (Ayumi Mano)

Reviews

Sep 19, 2021

Stark700

Recommended

Imagine living with a beautiful maid everyday who serves you, pleases you, and wants to be with you at all times. The only problem? You can't touch her. It almost sounds appaling but that is the fate of Bocchan, a noble man who suffers a curse where he kills anything he touches.

When I heard news of the manga getting the anime adaptation, it wasn't a bit surprising. It's one of the most popular manga from Sunday Webry and contains a premise that is suitable for a fantasy rom-com. With the manga running over 190 chapters, it also seems clear the anime doesn't have enough ... time to cover everything. Yet here we are, with a 12-episode adaptation. Created by Koharu Ikami, it is their only work yet shows that the author wanted us to experience the life of a noble and his maid.

Watching The Duke of Death and His Maid is about as simple as it sounds. At its core, it's about the relationship of the duke (Bocchan) and his maid, Alice. As a timid man lacking social experience, Bocchan has difficulty making friends or expressing his thoughts around others. This becomes a troubling experience and running gag throughout the show. Why? That's because his maid Alice just absolutely loves to tease him at every single chance she gets. With her lascivious body and flirtious personality, Alice tests the limits of his curse. In various episodes, she often gets Bocchan to the point where he ends up being speechless. While most of these scenes are lighthearted and humorous, we have to remember that this is also a punishment for him. Remember, Bocchan can't touch Alice or anyone due to his curse. And it's a traversty.

As we learn to understand more of Bocchan and Alice's relationship, we also meet others such as Rob, Viola, Walter, Zain, and Caph. These characters are intergrated into the show as a way to show the aristocratic lives of the cast. Most of them are protrayed in a Victorian way that adheres to the show's common themes. Characters such as Rob and Walter represents the gentleman stereotype. Others such as Viola and Caph has a more self assertive personality who speaks their thoughts confidentally around others. But perhaps distinguishable character is Zain. He has the head of a bird with a playful personality, who can easily get around others. It's an unorthodox addition to the cast who perhaps represent freedom. He always behaves with an open mind and freely expresses himself around others. From the show's viewpoint, you'll soon realize these characters exist there to be themselves and their roles. They're not there to further the duke and his maid's relationship. To me, that's an example of creative writing in establishing characters in their own unique roles. Unfortunately, this season didn't prepare enough to fully develop them. Let's face it, the anime is only 12 episodes and 190+ chapters is far more than a 1-cour show can handle.

But the more I watched this anime, the more I realized why this show is a fantasy rom-com. It aims to flesh out Bocchan and Alice's relationship as much as possible without them becoming an official couple. Of course, this has a valid reason because of the curse. However, Alice's personalty goes deeper than just what we see. She truly cares about Bocchan beyond her flirtious facade and through some flashbacks, we can see that she was a vulnerable young girl. What's also fascinating about Alice is her lack of fear despite knowing Bocchan's curse. This is due to her immense trust in him. In fact, their relationship is built on trust from the very start. She never fears to be near Bocchan and always puts on a happy smile. If anything, she is perhaps Bocchan's savior and his personal hero.

Admittedly, I did approach this show with a sense of trepidation. That's because the promotional material contained CGI quality material. And for a rom-com like this, that hardly qualifies as encouraging news. Luckily I believe the CGI ultimately doesn't deteriorate the quality of the anime although I do wish J.C. Staff took a more traditional approach at animating the show. On the other hand, Alice is decorated with an alluring figure. Dressed as a maid in goth-like clothing, she has lavish blonde hair and crystal blue eyes representing her beauty. It's no wonder why Bocchan gets so nervous when she comes near him.

It's a not uncommon trend for a maid and her master to fall in love in fiction stories. From this story, we witness the unorthodox relationship of Bocchan and Alice. It's easy to accept their relationship but hard to understand it completely. That's where the anime needs improvement and it became obvious the length of the show isn't enough. Still, I do recommend The Duke of Death and His Maid, especially if you're a fan of rom-coms. This is a show that just loves to be what it is.

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Sep 8, 2023

RegalFlare

Mixed Feelings

I generally really enjoy the story. The manga is amazing, but this is an odd adaptation.
The intro and outro songs are really good. Will add to music play list later.
The thing that kills it for me is the animation. It is unfortunately CGI and it's a bit garring at times. Its feels like I'm waiting for the cutscene in a video game to be over. The CGI is distracting. The movements of the characters are sometimes really uncanny and not normal. How is it that the background characters are animated in 2D, and the main characters are in CGI? Its normally the other ...

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Sep 20, 2021

AnimeEnjoyer420

Not Recommended

Recommendation: A low-quality adaptation of very good source material. I highly recommend reading the manga, but I would not bother with the anime.

Story: The main story follows the titular Bocchan, the eldest son of a powerful noble family, who has been cursed to kill any living thing he touches. His mother has banished him to a separate estate and told him he will be disinherited if he is unable to break the curse by spring. He is joined only by his maid, childhood friend and love interest Alice, as well as his elderly one-eyed butler Rob. Despite the title and general ... nature of the curse, this is first and foremost a lighthearted romantic comedy. There is very little here that could be described as dark or serious, and the series doesn't dwell on the few parts that are. It's funny and just generally enjoyable to see the different combinations of characters interacting while trying to break the main character's curse.

Audio/Visual: Good voice acting work all around, especially from Bocchan and Alice's VAs. They're also handed the duties of singing a duet for the OP, which is pretty solid, and they sing during the show as well, with a duet of The Owl and the Pussycat between the two late in the season being a highlight scene.

Unfortunately, the visual aspect of this series is a major letdown. Even by CG standards, the animation is very poor and cheap-looking. In some parts, such as a brief scene of Cuff flailing her arms while getting excited about Santa, it looks downright embarrassing. As a layman, I have no idea what went into the decision to use CG animation rather than doing it the traditional way, but it was a huge misfire creatively. This is a series that would probably have double the score I gave it if it had even minimally competent 2D animation, but I can't in good conscience recommend a show that looks this terrible. The disappointing part is that there is an interesting sense of style to everything that isn't CG. The backgrounds are textured to look like paintings on canvas, and a few brief sequences use hand-drawn characters and animation and they look great. If they had put resources into this project instead of cranking out a cheap, low-effort CG adaptation, it could have been really good. As it is, they did a terrible disservice to the elegant and creative artwork in the manga, especially the Witches World, which is gloriously spooky and weird in the manga and just looks goofy in the anime.

Characters: The characters nearly make this thing watchable in spite of the CG visual mess. Alice's interactions with Bocchan are funny and charming even if they don't always totally make sense (for example, why is she doing things like asking for a kiss or a hug when she's fully aware that she would die from it?). More importantly, the show is completely stolen by Zain and Cuff, a witch duo that tries to help Bocchan break his curse. Zain is a very horny birdman and Cuff is a complete and total idiot but very lovable. Their relationship is explored more in the manga, but they are highly entertaining even in the anime. You could easily spin off an entire series about these two and it would probably be better and funnier than the original. My one criticism here is Viola, and in particular her gross crush on Rob, who is old enough to be her grandfather. Thankfully, it's entirely one-sided and acknowledged by everyone else to be just her going through a phase, but it's uncomfortable and unnecessary either way.

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Shinigami Bocchan to Kuro Maid

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